A Banner Day For the Cottons

My daughter had her awards ceremony at 9:30 this morning. I went into work two hours early to get everything set up for opening at 11:00 , so I could sneak away at 9:20...make the five minute drive to her school to watch the awards and be back at the store by the time we opened at 11.

Catch number one: my sister was going to meet me at the school, she called me at work five minutes before I was going to leave and said "The sign out front of the school says the awards ceremony started at 9:00."

I flew out of the back door of the restaurant flying down the road to the school, feeling reminiscent about the trip at 85MPH in a driving monsoon to Macon to see Massey in her state competition for Winter guard. At least it wasn't raining today!

Catch number two: Her principal is an obvious blow hard who loves the sound of his own voice. I was thirty minutes late and he was just giving out the first award.

This is an example of how he introduced EACH and EVERY award:

"This next award is for the A/B honor roll students...this means that each and every one of these students had an
'A' or 'B' average, no one had any 'C' on their report card or received a grade lower than a 'B.' Certainly no dastardly 'D' and maintained this average for the last semester. These students had only A's or B's for the entire nine weeks."

For pete's sake! I was never on the A/B roll and even I know what "A/B" means...It means all A's and B's.

When you are in a class of 313, you have to cut to the nitty gritty.

Next came the "Perfect Attendance".

As he stated: "This award goes to these students who have maintained a perfect attendance record... this means that not one of these students have missed even ONE day of school for the past semester and have been here every day of the school period of the last nine weeks."

Thank the Lord he cleared THAT one up for me!

Next was the Perfect, Perfect attendance, which means "that every student has not only been present each and every day, but has not checked in late or checked out early for the entire nine weeks and has been present for the entire day for the entire nine week period."

After that we had to endure perfect attendance for the entire school year and perfect, perfect attendance for the entire school year.

Next came the sports awards. My sister remarked on the size of one of the recipients..a big ole strapping boy. She asked me if he was really in middle school...I told her he was probably an eighth grader like my son Zach was a sophomore (at almost seventeen)...I told her he probably doubled as a bus driver for field trips and would receive THAT award next, once the principal thoroughly explained it to us idiots.

It went on and on and on. When they gave out academic awards, I went to move my illegally parked car, knowing for sure I wouldn't miss anything. Not that my kids are dumb, they just choose not to excel in the academic area any more than they have to. As I told my sister, you really don't have to bring a camera to these things if you are one of my kids...just show up for moral support.

Oh there were the smart kid's parents with their zoom lens cameras walking the perimeter waiting to snap that photo, adjust their F-stop ... zoom in on the face of their over achiever and get THAT SHOT! The kid may be smart, but they are still a middle school kid and most looked mortified that their parents wouldn't just sit in the stands like the rest of us and leave the the student to blend in with every one else and act like they didn't even HAVE parents ...much less ones that were there in the gym.

After over two hours we were only half way through the program and I had to leave to be at work by the time we opened. I told my sister that I would walk out the other door so that maybe I could see where Massey was and blow her a kiss and let her know I was there. I caught her beautiful face...she brightened a thousand times just seeing me and I mouthed to her "I have to go, but Aunt Cindy is in the back." She blew me a kiss and I pointed to where Cindy was in the stands. By this point , the older people, probably grand parents were dropping like flies, leaving every exit they could find.

The only awards left were the important ones , like the superintendent's award, all kind of awards named for our county's big shots and awards sponsored by Kiwanis, Coca Cola and so forth.

As I was pulling into the parking lot at work, five minutes before we opened, I received a text from my sister: "She just got the Citizenship Award from Coca Cola."

Cindy said she was making a grocery list when she heard my daughter's name called.

Massey told me later that she was quietly chatting with her friends when someone said "THAT'S YOUR NAME!!"

The program I have from the ceremony reads as follows:

The Coca Cola Citizenship Award is sponsored by Coca Cola and given to the student that exemplifies outstanding citizenship and character. The award is presented to one male and one female student.

I thought that I would bust out crying. It was voted on by the teachers...out of 313 students, they chose MY GIRL!!

I am so glad that my sister was there to see it and that my girl got such an appropriate award!

Cindy checked her out of school after the awards and brought her to the restaurant for lunch.

My manager bought both of their lunches, all my co workers went by to hug her and look at the medal she had gotten. My best friend at work gave her a ten dollar bill. The cooks sent her a huge dessert..two huge pieces of chocolate cake, five types of chocolate, chocolate mousse, two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream..hot fudge and whipped cream.

It was a banner day for her AND me.

I got home from work around five, and Zach told me that he had gotten a"Perfect Perfect" attendance award at the high school as well. What the heck...he may not be doing much but at least he shows up! Kudos for my boy getting something too! I started to ask him how they described the award and how long did it take them to describe it "Perfectly?"

All in all a great day! I hated that I missed Massey getting her big award, but so happy that my sis was there to cheer her on.

I am one of the luckiest people I know. I have terrific kids, they may not turn out to be brain surgeons...but they will turn out to be wonderful people and a definite addition to society. They will always make me proud...of THAT I am sure. They certainly made me proud today.

God has blessed the Cottons and for that... I am truly grateful !!

With a heart bursting with pride....COTTON